Advertising and Analytics Caught in the Cross-hairs

AT&T's move to metered data plans is going to have an interesting long-lasting effect on the Apple ecosystem. Apps that leverage services like advertisers and analytics companies who rely on transferring data to and from devices now have a new ingredient in the mix: reducing bytes transferred.

Those who have been paying attention to this already know what it's all about, but for different reasons. When we were putting together our analytics mobile SDKs at Webtrends, we were hyper-sensitive to many issues: privacy, flexibility, powerful reporting, efficiency, device battery life. It's those last two issues that forced us to be very efficient with the data we're transferring, and to take measures to only send data when it didn't interfere with the user experience in the app, or when the device battery was low.

But now the challenge is different. Mobile device users may not want to have extra services running in the background, eating up their precious bytes. And how do users keep track of this?

App developers will have new requirements of third party services, as they themselves are now having to factor in how much bandwidth their own apps are consuming. From this NYTimes article:

One of the biggest problems, app developers say, is that people are not sure how much bandwidth they are consuming with an app. AT&T customers will be able to track their data use on the company’s Web site and receive alerts when they near their quotas, but many customers are in the dark about how much data a particular app or video uses.

“They’re going to be reluctant now because they’re going to be thinking in the back of their mind that there’s a clock ticking about how long they can play this game,” said Brad Foxhoven, chief marketing officer and a founder of Ogmento, which makes augmented-reality games for the iPhone.

Developers will likely look to Apple to add new functionality to help them clearly articulate how much data is transferred, and how to be as efficient as possible with that data transfer.

Flurry Makes Another Move - Mobile App Analytics Revenue with comScore

Flurry has just announced a smart deal with comScore... Gagan Biyani over at MobileCrunch has the scoop:

Flurry wins because comScore’s sales force will sell Flurry’s data analytics software, generating an initial revenue stream for Flurry. According to Director of Community Peter Farago, clients will pay comScore to have Flurry’s SDK installed on their applications, and Flurry will make a revenue-share for each client. ComScore is adding reporting and charting software on top of Flurry’s analytics. Flurry is traditionally free for developers, but comScore is going to charge clients to use Flurry because of the additional reporting and charting they add.

This news is getting a lot of attention. As it should. This is a good deal for Flurry who, as a young company trying to make a living in the already crowded Analytics space, have figured out two revenue models already.

I agree with Om Malik though:

The way I see it, it’s only a matter of time before someone like comScore or The Nielsen Co. buys out Flurry and its rivals. It’s becoming increasingly evident that the mobile web and mobile apps are part of new usage behavior that goes beyond today’s plain-vanilla web.

There are plenty of smart folks in the Analytics and #measure space that know full well what is required to make their holistic, powerful solutions work for brands around the world. This is a wise move by both companies to make a big play in this rapidly expanding space. 2010 will be a great year for Analytics in mobile measurement. Bring it on!

Mobile Apps and the Open Car

Lyle on GM-Volt reports that the Volt will have a BB and iPhone app. The idea captured in the image here suggests controlling the charging functionality of the Volt via a BB app.

He goes on to say,

GM sources have indicated that there will be applications at least for the iPod [EB: I assume this is iPhone, and iPod Touch] and the Blackberry. These will soon be unveiled along with their potential functions.

What's really interesting is to read down the (many!) comments of the article, with folks chiming in with other ideas about Mobile App / auto integrations. Aside from some snark, and the you-probably-saw-this-coming references to our old friend Kitt, one commenter had 26 different ideas, including:

Be able to set reminders that are triggered by a location so that if you drive within a certain radius of that location, the reminder will play through the Volt sound system via text-to-speech. For example, “Reminder to pick up some batteries at Circuit City”

and

Be able to opt in to receive an in-car notification if you are about to drive past a gas station who’s prices are in the best 10% of the nearest 10 gas stations.

Will the automobile industry figure this out fast enough? Will they build in communications to allow clever integrations? Will someone else come along with clever after-market products that expose the data that's likely already sitting in the computers onboard most cars?

This is going to be fun...

Developing Mobile Apps - Things To Know

VentureBeat blogger Paul Boutin has a great follow up article from Wednesday’s DiscoveryBeat 2009 conference. I wish I could have been there...it sounds like there were some good takeaways.

My favorites from the list below:

the current market is under-measured
You need $0.00 to promote an app company now
It costs $3 to acquire an Apple app customer through advertising

Paul's list of "11 things I didn’t know about app development":

1. The majority of app developers don’t pay for market research before they design and build their apps. Yet this kind of research is inexpensive and vastly improves the likeliness of creating hits rather than misses.
2. Apple App Store downloads are growing 20 times faster than iTunes music/video downloads. Even paid apps outrun iTunes growth by a factor of seven.
3. Social network apps, compared to other types, have shown a relatively low frequency of usage and a low retention rate after 90 days. Games are where it’s at.
4. Super-analyst Mary Meeker at Morgan Stanley says that despite the buzz over anything mobile, the current market is under-measured, and future growth underestimated.
5. You need $0.00 to promote an app company now. For example, Sibblingz will distribute your game to Facebook, the iPhone, and the Web without charging you anything upfront. They’ll take a cut of revenue as it comes in.
6. Reach and revenue are nice to have, but retention — getting users to keep launching your app — is the key to success.
7. 90% of social game leader Zynga’s revenue comes from virtual goods sold within games and on social networks, not from advertising.
8. It costs $3 to acquire an Apple app customer through advertising. That’s more than the customer will spend buying the game. (Notably, no one in the audience disputed this stat.)
9. Most app discovery comes from viral word of mouth among customers, not from people searching app stores for something to download.
10. That said, mass marketing still works. RockYou spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a month “buying users” with ads. Zynga spent possibly millions marketing its hit Farmville on Facebook and elsewhere. (Zynga GM Bill Mooney was in the room and didn’t dispute this.)
11. Big brands like Mountain Dew are often presumed by tech industry workers to damage the credibility of anything they touch. In reality, they can be as powerful as app stores and game networks for popularizing an app. It never hurts to talk to them.